Feb 23

CHILDREN & FAMILIES

COMING TOGETHER AROUND CHALLAH

Sunday, Feb 23, 10:30am FREE Pre-register
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PJ LIBRARY – for ages 4-8

SIDURA LUDWIG / Rising
A child and mother wake early every Friday morning to mix and measure, knead and shape dough that will become challah bread – a lesson in patience, slowing down, faith and family. Sidura Ludwig’s debut picture book is a lyrical tribute to the ritual of making challah and preparing for Shabbat, with stunning illustrations by Sophia Vincent Guy.
We will bake challah together at the JCC!
SIDURA LUDWIG is the award-winning author of adult books Your Are Not What We Expected and Holding My Breath, as well as children’s book Swan: The Girl Who Grew. She lives in Thornhill, ON.

SELINA ALKO (illustrator) / Sharing Shalom
DANIELLE SHARKAN (author – not appearing)
A girl’s community joins hands to fight intolerance in this richly illustrated picture book that sings with hope for young readers.
Leila loves going to Hebrew school and hearing stories of mighty kings and quick-witted queens. Being Jewish is a part of her story, and learning Hebrew connects her to her ancestors. But when Leila’s synagogue gets vandalized, she senses that something that used to make her feel special now just makes her feel different.
Then Leila’s classmates and community come together to repair the synagogue. This compassionate gesture makes Leila realize that everyone around her is different—and that’s a beautiful thing.
SELINA ALKO is the acclaimed author-illustrator of Every-Day Dress-Up, I’m Your Peanut Butter Big Brother, and Stars of the Night: the Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport. Originally from Vancouver, Selina now lives in Brooklyn.

Both authors will also present at VTT on Monday, February 24, 9:00am

HEALTH AND DRAMA – FROM VIGNETTES TO NOVELLAS

Sunday, Feb 23, 1:00pm $18 Buy tickets
Moderator: Helen Pinsky
With the Circle of Friends for Women

NORA GOLD / In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym – Two Novellas
In Sickness and In Health – Lily had epilepsy as a child, so her most cherished goal has always been to be “normal”. By age 45 she has a “normal” life, including a family, friends, and an artistic career, and no one, not even her husband, knows the truth about her past. A moving novella about shame, secrets, disabilities, and the limits and power of love.
Yom Kippur in a Gym – Five strangers at a Yom Kippur service in a gym are struggling with personal crises. When a medical emergency unexpectedly throws these strangers together, in one hour their lives are changed in ways they would never have believed possible.
Dr. NORA GOLD is the prize-winning author of Marrow and Other Stories, the novels Fields of Exile, The Dead Man, and the anthology 18: Jewish Stories Translated From 18 Languages, the editor of a prestigious literary journal, and a former professor. She lives in Toronto.

STAN LUBIN – 123 Very Short Stories From a Very Long Life in Medicine
Composed of personal anecdotes, this memoir is an engaging and emotional journey, not just for those in the medical profession but all readers who wish to get a glimpse inside the lives of people seeking care in both small towns and cities. Written with a depth of medical detail yet still accessible to casual readers, Dr. Lubin’s thought-provoking stories will make readers consider their own beliefs, vulnerabilities, joys and, indeed, mortality.
Dr. STAN LUBIN originally completed a degree in philosophy and political science and worked as a teacher in Tanzania, before finding his calling as a doctor. In BC he worked as a general practitioner doing house calls, anesthetics, delivering babies and working in the emergency. He also taught trainee family doctors at UBC. He lives in Vancouver.

SPONSORED BY THE WEINBERG RESIDENCE

EVOCATIVE JOURNEYS

Sunday, Feb 23, 4:00pm FREE Pre-register

ROSA LOWINGER / Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile and Repair
In conversation with Shelly Rosenblum
Dwell Time is an illuminating debut memoir by one of the few prominent Latinas in the field of art and architectural conservation; a moving portrait of a Cuban Jewish family’s intergenerational trauma; and a story about repair and healing that will forever change how you see the objects and places we cherish and how we manage damage and loss.
After moving away from her difficult childhood in Miami to escape the “cloying exile’s nostalgia,” Lowinger discovered the unique field of art conservation, which led her to work in Tel Aviv, Philadelphia, Rome, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Port-Au-Prince. Eventually returning to Havana for work, Lowinger suddenly finds herself embarking on a remarkable journey of family repair that begins, as it does in conservation, with an understanding of the origins of damage.
ROSA LOWINGER is a Cuban-born art conservator who works in Miami and Los Angeles. She is the author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub and Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction.

SHELLY ROSENBLUM is Curator of Academic Programs at the Belkin Art Gallery at UBC.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VANCOUVER HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTRE

GROUND ZERO OF A CENTURY-OLD WAR

Sunday, Feb 23, 6:00pm $18 Buy tickets

YARDENA SCHWARTZ / Ghosts of a Holy War: the 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Long before the State of Israel was born, British Mandate Palestine was the scene of one of the worst pogroms ever perpetrated outside of Europe. The 1929 massacre of the ancient Jewish community of Hebron, the burial place of Abraham, was one of the most seminal events in the Arab-Israeli conflict —until Hamas’s gruesome massacre of October 7, 2023. One century apart, the echoes of 1929 in 2023 are key to understanding the complexities of what is, at its core, a holy war between Abraham’s children.
YARDENA SCHWARTZ is an award-winning freelance journalist and Emmy-nominated producer. She lived in Israel from 2013 – 2023, reporting for various publications, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Economist, Foreign Policy, and National Geographic. She previously worked at NBC News. Yardena lives in Rhinebeck, NY.

Yardena will also present at 2:00pm at White Rock South Surrey JCC, by donation.

SPONSORED BY THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER VANCOUVER

A LITERARY THRILLER

Sunday, Feb 23, 8:00pm $18 Buy tickets

JEAN HANFF KORELITZ / The Sequel
In conversation with Rhea Tregebov
After the “insanely readable” (Stephen King) and “perfectly told” (Malcolm Gladwell) New York Times bestseller, The Plot, comes Jean Hanff Korelitz’s equally captivating new novel The Sequel.
Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business. That is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity, but for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. After all, how hard can it really be to write a universally lauded bestseller?
JEAN HANFF KORELITZ is The New York Times bestselling author of the novels The Plot, The Latecomer, You Should Have Known, Admission, The Devil and Webster, The White Rose, as well as Interference Powder, a novel for children. She lives in New York City.

RHEA TREGEBOW is an award-winning novelist and poet and an Associate Professor Emerita in the School of Creative Writing at UBC.

Events